Metro’s ExpressLanes is gearing up for the fall debut of the HOT lanes on the 110 freeway between Adams Boulevard and the Artesia Transit Center. That will be followed next year by the arrival of HOT lanes on the 10 freeway between Alameda Street in downtown Los Angeles and the 605 freeway.
The project has made a series of videos explaining how the ExpressLanes will work. This one answers questions that many of you have had about enforcement — how the CHP will monitor who should and shouldn’t be paying a toll.
Here are the links to the first three videos:
ExpressLanes: It’s about time
ExpressLanes: how it works
ExpressLanes: explaining congestion pricing
The project will allow single motorists to use the carpool lanes on the 110 and 10 in exchange for a toll that will rise and fall depending on how much room there is to sell in the lanes. There’s a ton of useful information on the project web page, including this FAQ, and the videos also do a good job explaining how the project will work.
Hi Devin;
I know some people are focusing on the clean-air cars but the point of congestion pricing and this project — which is a one-year test project — is to see if there is a more efficient way to move more people through the lanes, not cars. So a clean-air car with a single motorist not paying the toll is an impediment. The idea is to either give people an incentive to take transit or to carpool (incentive: no toll and traffic is targeted to move at 45 mph) or to sell extra space to single motorists to better help spread traffic around the freeway and raise money for transit.
My own two cents: HOT lanes have worked in other locales and I don’t see any reason they shouldn’t be tried here. That said, it will no doubt be controversial because we’ve never had toll roads/bridges/tunnels in L.A. County, such as is the case in other metro areas.
Steve Hymon
Editor, The Source
$3.00 Account Maint Fee for non-use is a fee for nothing. It costs nothing to maintain one person’s non-use. It’s just an add-on for no reason, other than taking one’s money. No service is given nor needed. But, they figure $3.00 won’t be griped about. It accounts to paying for nothing.
I can certainly see the pros and cons of this new system, though it seems its Achilles’ heel may be that annoying $3 monthly fee for those who don’t enter the HOT lane at least four times. Driving my family around, I’d definitely want a transponder to take advantage of our 2+ and 3+ carpooling. However, in most months, I’d probably only enter the lanes twice, meaning I would be dinged $3 each month that happens, thus encouraging me to make two superfluous trips in a HOT lane to avoid the fee. Seems like it would make more sense to scale back the maintenance fee to be assessed semi-annually (or at a maximum, quarterly) so we don’t encourage folks to drive more to save money.
I wish more people commented when they had the chance, instead of making comments now. I know I certainly mentioned the maintenance fee, especially since I still maintain a Bay Area Fastrak account where they charge me no fees at all – which has only been used in the Bay Area once, and which I will continue to maintain since I rarely carpool along that corridor. Although MTA staff didn’t help matters by imposing a draconian one minute time period, it would have helped if others had expressed their objections THEN instead of now.
@calwatch: A good point, but unfortunately when learning about the project several months ago, I was for some reason not able to find the documentation in which the $3 was discussed. Guess we’re stuck with this fee structure, then?